Amid a severe shortage of oxygen reported from several COVID-19 facilities in the national capital, the Delhi government on Thursday blamed Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for blocking supply of oxygen to the city and urged the Centre to deploy paramilitary forces to ensure that the trucks supplying the gas are not held up by the neighbouring states.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has spoken to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar seeking his support in facilitating transport of oxygen trucks from Haryana to Delhi, and he tweeted that the latter has assured full support. His deputy Manish Sisodia, accusing the neighbouring states of 'jungle raj' over oxygen, asked the Centre to deploy paramilitary forces if need be to ensure that the supply of the precious gas to the city is not disrupted.
In a press conference, Kejriwal said his government was trying its best to airlift oxygen from Odisha, which is going to contribute the majority of the newly increased quota of oxygen for the capital, to cut down on the time it takes.
“With the rise in coronavirus cases in the country, demands for oxygen cylinders, medicines, vaccination, etc, have increased. Their shortage is being felt. We, in Delhi, have also faced an acute shortage of oxygen cylinders. The Delhi government has spent a number of sleepless nights trying to arrange oxygen in hospitals and other COVID care centres to try and ensure that no patient suffers because of its absence,” Kejriwal said.
The Delhi government estimates that the city's daily requirement currently is of 700 tonnes of oxygen. The Centre has, after Delhi's appeal for increasing its oxygen quota, enhanced it from 378 tonnes to 480 tonnes. The capital is dependent on other states for its oxygen supply since it does not have any production centre. Its entire supply of oxygen comes from companies based in other states.
The Kejriwal government claims that Haryana and UP, where the companies supplying oxygen to Delhi are based, are not allowing oxygen-bearing trucks to come to the capital since they want to use it in their own states.
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The Delhi High Court has intervened in the matter, and asked the Centre to ensure that the capital gets adequate supply of oxygen. The Delhi government has also sought the intervention of the Centre to ensure trucks were able to cross over to the city and replenish oxygen stocks in hospitals, in some cases in the nick of time.
“This is a colossal crisis. If we decide to split ourselves into Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal... India will not survive. We need to come together. We need to unite as Indians, as human beings. We don't want to see news of states stopping trucks coming to Delhi, going to MP, etc. We want to see news that shows us how Delhi helped another state overcome their crisis, how Uttar Pradesh helped in doing so. We want to see news of togetherness and unity,” Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal tweeted that he received a call from Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who assured complete support to Delhi in facilitating lifting of its quota of oxygen from his state. Patnaik told Kejriwal that he has put a special officer on the job.
Sisodia said many hospitals were facing an oxygen shortage right now and have oxygen left for just two to 12 hours. “We have been making internal arrangements for now, but it will become tough to save lives,” he said.
He alleged the governments in Haryana and UP, their ministers, officers and police are blocking Delhi's oxygen supply. “Why are the governments of Haryana and UP behaving as if they have some dispute with Delhi? It is not a time to fight. We have to be united,” he said.
